MTN Group today announced an encouraging set of results for the six months ended 30 June 2019 in the context of difficult trading conditions across its major markets.
The company said in a statement that it saw growth of 12% in adjusted headline earnings per share, which is the first time that it had delivered growth in this measure in recent years.
MTN service revenue grew just below 10% and EBITDA just above 10%, both on a constant currency basis. Its holding company leverage remains stable at 2.3x, well within its guidance range of 2 to 2.5x capex intensity dropping further to 16,9%.
A strong subscriber growth of 7,7 million in the first six months of the year reached a total of 240 million subscribers, while active data users grew by 3,5 million to 82 million and its 30-day active Mobile Money users grew by 2,4 million to 30 million.
The Group Chief Executive Officer, Rob Shutter commenting on the performance said: “Our continued focus on the customer experience has seen us record brand NPSˆ leadership across more than 50% of the portfolio, with 12 markets now leading. That contributed to MTN being named the most valuable South African brand in the Brand Finance South Africa 50 report and the most admired African brand by Brand Africa 100.
“During the period we had some landmark events. We successfully completed the listing of MTN Nigeria on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and our e-commerce joint venture Jumia listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Within three months of announcing our asset realisation programme, which is targeting at least R15 billion over the next few years, we delivered R2,1 billion in proceeds.
“Our advanced instant messaging platform, Ayoba, is now live in three of our West African markets and has more than 300 000 active monthly users. We are very pleased with the formal approval of our super-agent licence in Nigeria, which clears the way for the launch of phase 1 of our Nigeria fintech business while we await a banking licence.”
Operating environment
In South Africa, the group contended with a weak macroeconomic environment as well as the introduction of new end-user requirements and the repricing of out-of-bundle data rates, while economic activity was muted, in Nigeria, in the time of presidential elections and prior to the formation of the cabinet
Financial performance
Notwithstanding this environment, in constant currency terms, service revenue grew by 9,7% to R67,9 billion and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) expanded by 10,2% to R31,2 billion.
The holding company net debt to EBITDA ratio remained stable at 2.3x, which is well within the group’s guidance range of 2.0 to 2.5x, and capex intensity dropped further to 16.9%, indicating greater efficiency in deploying assets.
Looking ahead, Shuter said MTN is well positioned to grow by leveraging our scale and enhancing our competitive position.
MTN will focus on the continued turnaround of the enterprise business, the recovery of prepaid and the launch of Mobile Money, in South Africa, while in In Nigeria, will continue further rollout of 4G coverage, the launch of Ayoba and Music Time! as well as accelerating its fintech ambitions by fully leveraging on extensive distribution network to offer a range of transfer and payment services to our GSM customer base.
